EPL: Managers in for Tough Test of Skills Taking on Man City's Billions

If ever before in world football there has been a team as comparatively cashed up as Manchester City now are I would be surprised to hear it. They now have more money than many of the governments around the world. With this comes the ridiculous power of being able to assemble a team of champions to win a championship. Roberto Mancini has never had it so good. He has had his warm up, now is the true test of his managerial mettle. Fail and you are gone.

Most would say that with his prepartion time having been reasonably long it would be only natural to expect him to win some silverware this season, and City's owners will expect it, or he will naturally lose his job. As it is in the business world.

This is where this piece could explore another angle. It will not though, while I could talk about the incompatibility of business and true footballing precision, how top level coaches need to spend up to two hundred games to really get a team working at optimum levels, I won't.

Instead I will say that Mancini would have been well aware of the situation when he took the job, seeing the manner in which it was given to him.

It is not only him now that will have the hard time.

The rest of the league's managerial maestro's will have to prove just that, whether they are actually masters of their craft. Taking on a team as well resourced as Manchester City now will be exceedingly difficult and fraught with much peril for opposition sides.

The team has everything it needs. If Mancini can get them playing, they will be capable of taking on any team in the league at any ground and taking the points.

This type of situation is not new and throughout the games history there have been financial mismatches. The real entertainment is seeing those clubs which have to worry about the book-keeping trying to keep up with the big spenders and them finding new and innovative ways of doing so.

Sometimes innovation can be as simple as finding an amazing player that the big spenders don't. The other sides in the premier league are currently trying to do just that. Each one praying for the miracles that sometimes occur, where some star appears from out of the blue, exploding across the field with their brilliance.

It is an interesting thing that Arsenal and Manchester United will be finding that the league they once fought over is now being contested by more teams than ever before. Even these two hugely successful EPL sides have become conservative in their spending compared to financially powerful clubs like Chelsea and City.

Historically, it is just a progression though, a cyclical thing, the ebb and flow of fortune. Manchester United have been the big spenders of the past, though in their case they have managed to back up spending with trophies and a good academy, which should be the aim of any financially secure club. Now it is there closest rivals who have the upper hand. This will of course only spur Sir Alex Ferguson on into the fray, as it will his contemporaries, Arsene Wenger, Harry Redknapp, Roy Hodgson etc. For after all, they are competitive fellows, as the world well knows.

This season will be a true test of the skill of those managers who would pretend that they are good enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the great coaches of the past. They have a stern test on their hands dealing with any team in the league. But if they seriously wish to be challenging for the title this year, they have to make sure they beat their closest rivals.

They way things are lining up for Mancini, he should have an advantage. The other managers have to find out how to stop this side before it gets moving, for it could well prove to be a juggernaut in the years to come. But then again, Real Madrid last year proved all the stars in the galaxy cannot buy you a trophy.